In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

From researching and analysing horror film trailers, horror film posters and front covers of film magazines, in depth, they have given me a better understanding of the conventions used within the horror genre. This helped me when initialising ideas for my own film trailer, poster and film magazine. I followed majority of these conventions however I did challenge some of them. An example of me following the conventions for my film trailer was that I produced a production company 'tag', which I created on Adobe photoshop. I created the logo in black and white, so that it had the same effect as the rest of the trailer, more spooky.

The storyline of my film trailer could be seen as a typical horror movie as it is a group of friends on a camping trip that turns nasty. For the storyline to be believable it is important that the characters fit in well with the plot, but at the same time, challenge the conventions. Therefore that is why we used typical characters like the 'dumb one, and the 'blonde one' however even though they were given these tags there were sometimes the complete opposite. This helped the audience to relate to the character's as they are typical of todays society.

The characters that I created for this film trailer were different to what you would usually find in a horror movie as I followed conventions when it came to their 'tags' however, when it came to how and when they died I challenged the conventions and did it differently. This was more obvious by the way that we used an all girl cast as usually the groups of friends in a horror movie are mixed, both boys and girls. By having an all girl cast the murderer was also female, which is very unlike a normal horror film as the villain is usually a man. As a group we believed that by having a female murderer, that it would attract a wider audience as it is different to other horror movies and they might like to see something different.
Focusing on the technical side of a typical horror film, my trailer has a variation of camera angles at different paces. I used a range of long, medium, close and extreme close shots throughout the trailer, the close ups and extreme close ups were used mainly when emphasising what was happening and to create tension within the audience. I used still tripod shots to focus directly on certain parts of the footage and also for tracking/panning shots, when filming the forest scenes I did not use a tripod as it would not have given the same affect, as if the young girls are being chased and murdered.

I also followed the Freytag's triangle theory when producing my film trailer, this is because it describes a film to have an equilibrium, a climax and then a fall of action. This is portrayed in my trailer as at the beginning of my storyline, everything is normal with a group of friends setting off on a camping trip, it is then there where my trailer meets its climax because one by one all of them are killed. Throughout this section in the trailer, the clips and shots get faster and more intense. Although I followed the conventions of Freytag's triangle, I also added in my own twist as towards the end of the trailer when people will think it is over, I added in one of the characters being dragged off the screen, screaming.

When all shots were put together I had to edit it in time with the music that we used, so that it all co-ordinated together and that it had a flow to it. This is important for keeping the audience interested in watching the rest of the trailer.
A lot of horror films persuade the viewers in believing that they are part of the film, this can be done through a lot of eye contact made looking into the camera. Therefore I did this quite a lot when trying to show the murderers evil side, and it also fits in with the title of the film 'An Eye For An Eye', as eyes keep looking into the camera, this also creates the horror like atmosphere. Although I did this I did not want to do it too much as it would become repetitive and tedious to the viewers which they could then begin to get bored and it would not have the same affect on the audience as it does only being done a few times.

I also challenged the conventions by adding in just captions instead of any dialogue as well. Each of the captions is in the same size and font, this is also a convention to a film trailer as it is important that they look like they all link together with the film.
As I did not want the audience to expect what was going to happen within the film just yet, i challenged the conventions by using an all girl cast and having a girl protagonist, this is unconventional to horror film as it usually both boys and girls within the cast.

Sound is essential to any trailer as the pace and volume of the sound reflects on the atmosphere created when wathing it. I used non-diegetic sound in my trailer, the soundtrack I used for my trailer is called 'Chainsaw horror'. The whole way through the trailer i kept the pace and volume of the music the same however, towards the end, I lowered the volume so that it was easier to cut off, without it being too sudden. It was then a good way of bringing in the emphasised scream that I added at the end when one of the female characters was being dragged off the screen.

The Film Poster -

When producing the film poster it was important that I had analysed and looked at many other exsisting posters as it is important to follow the conventions on something like a poster.
A poster is what is seen the most along side the trailer by the public and it was therefore important that the poster had an obvious link to the trailer and film its self. That is why I have included the picture of the eye as the core image on the poster. By adding the image of the girls to the middle of the eye on the poster its links it in with the image on the front of the film magazine.

Although the poster does not contain a busy image it is enough to attract the public, this is because it is just of an eye and it looks as if it is looking out to the person viewing it. However so that people know there is a group of girls within the film, I have added a faded image of the group of girls to the middle of the eye, this also leaves the viewers wondering whether it is to do with the girls being watched by somebody.

I have also followed conventions as at the bottom of the poster is a section that portrays the main charcter's names and the producer's names, this is seen in the majority of existing film posters. The layout for the poster is relatively simple with the image and then the text around it. This title is the largest font and is clearly set out, making it the main focus of the poster, with the release date and website smaller towards the bottom of the poster.
This is also shown in typical film posters, like the one below:

Magazine Front Cover -


When producing my magazine front cover, I had to follow all conventions to existing products from there being a main image and catchy tag-lines.
The colours that I used in the poster I carried on to use in the film magazine as it is then an obvious link to the film, therefore it is then clear to the viewers/audience that they are relate to the same film and this is important when trying to promote a new movie.
The red and white colours are bold and help the magazine to stand out. A magazine front cover has to be eye catching as somebody would not want to buy something that does not catch their eye after first seeing it.
I added the things that are found on all magazine front covers, like a barcode, issue number and a price, this is important as it is then easier this way for distrubution and for the paying customers.

The title of my film has been placed in the middle of the front cover so that it is clear to the buyer that that is the film that is being promoted inside the magazine, this is another reason for an eye catching image.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

I believe that the combination of my product and ancillary texts are effective and work well together. To accompany our film trailer we also had to produce a film magazine front cover and a film poster, it was important to make sure that all these products related to each other. The deep red and black used through out the poster and magazine front cover connotates a violent and bloody atmosphere, they are also related to the horror genre. It also features the same image that is on the magazine front cover, in the eye on the poster, this is so that people know that they are related and can then refer back to the trailer. Also by having the three products similiar it will broaden the audience for my trailer as they will recognise the features.

As the poster has the image of the same group of girls from the trailer and the magazine front cover, the audience will want to know why they are in the eye, suggesting that they are being watched, and they will then want to watch the film to know the exact reason for this.

Without detailed research and careful planning the Poster and magazine front cover would not have been as effective and would not have matched the trailer. It is important that all three products link together as it would be classed as false advertisement.

All the images that I had taken for the Magazine and poster, were all taken on a dark background so that there were easier to cut out on Photoshop and then place onto a different background. However neither of the images were taken in the woods or in the school, like the settings in the film trailer, therefore for us to maybe get more of an effect on it having a horror genre, it would have been better for us to do this.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

After showing our film trailer, poster and magazine front cover to our target audience, they gave my group some feedback about what they thought worked well and what didn't work too well. There is a vital element in creating a horror film trailer and that is portraying the genre to the audience. We wasn't questionned about our genre, therefore we must have done this well, the things that would have made them recognise it within the three products, is the lighting, camera angles, captions, make up etc.

Many of the people that we asked said that they were happy with the acting skills, as the characters were chosen with no experience of acting and also, we chose our cast, thinking whether or not the people would be reliable to us, however they did mention that the murderer (me) looked as if she was smiling a few times when being filmed. However a few of them said that it fitted in well because it was as if I was proud and enjoying myself. It was vital that our characters were believable, especially when trying to portray that I (Jodie) was being bullied and then wanted revenge on the people that had hurt me and damaged my eye, hense the title of the film. When we first put together our trailer, and portrayed it to some of our target audience they said they were not 100% sure this was the case and therefore we had to film a little more to explain ourselves better.
We were also told that our music fitted in well with the pace of our trailer, as it starts off slow with a slow place music and then gets faster, with quicker shots and the music becomes faster too.
When we had believed to have finished our trailer somebody suggested adding onto the end, something that the audience wouldn't forget and that is therefore were we got the idea of the loud scream and of Philippa being dragged away.

When producing our film poster we believed that we had finished.

However after showing in to a number of people we decided that the picture was taken on a low megapixel camera and was therefore very blury and not good enough for a film poster, therefore we took another picture of the eye and also added the image of the group of the girls, in the centre of they eye as this would leave the audience wondering what it was there for. The people that viewed it before said that the new version was much better and looked a lot more professional.

How did you use Media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

This project has developed my uses in media technologies.
Throughout the project I managed to use a wide range of media technologies to produce the three products.

For the research and planning stage I used Youtube to look at existing film trailers and Google to search for existing film magazine front covers and film posters. These are what helped me when choosing the storyline and what conventions I had to follow when producing my products.


As the film posters and front covers were hard to analyse on a Blogger post, I first did them on Microsoft Word and then uploaded them onto ScribD, which I then embeded the code and copy and pasted it into a new blog post. Before this project I had never used ScribD before and now I believe that it is a simple and easy way to upload your work on to something like Blogger.


After I had finished analysing and researching into existing products, my group then moved into the filming stage. To record the footage we used a Sony Handycam HDR-XR100, which is a HD video camera, we also used a tripod for the more serious shots so that the footage was not shakey and did not look too amature.

Once the footage was completed we uploaded it onto an Apple Mac computer which is where we then continued to edit our work in a programme called Adobe Premiere Pro. This programme allowed us to add the clips togther, change the length of them and add any effects or music that we wanted to be included in our trailer. When I first stated using this programme I thought that it was quite complicated and I didn't know how to use the tools to their full potential. Once I knew how to work it basically it didnt take too long to pick the rest of it up.

To create our film poster and film magazine front cover we used two other programmes called Adobe Photoshop CS4 and elements 8. These programmes helped us to cut out any images, add them onto another background, add any effects etc. Photoshop was the best programme to use when it came to producing a magazine front cover and poster as, images can edited and cropped to the way that you want them and captions can be transferred from the trailer and then added to these two pieces of work. Photoshop is also quite an easy programme to follow when you know how everything works on it.

Issues with filming

One of the main problems, when we wanted to film our footage for our trailer was getting all of the charaters in the same place at the same time. Many of our characters were either busy with school commitments or with their jobs, therefore when planning our filming days we were very limited to how long we could have all the cast together at one time. Another problem that occured during the filming process was the lighting. As most horror movies are filmed in the dark with proffessional lighting, it was harder for us as we did not have the big proffessional lights. The lighting also caused problems as we was not able to film when it was too dark but it went from light to dark quite quickly, so we had to get certain bits of the filming done quite quickly. Some of the footage that was shot in the dark had quite bad lighting and was of a poor quality, so we used Adobe Premiere Pro to lighten up the shot, making it look a lot much better.
When we filmed the footage for the murdering scenes it was raining heavy, but we did not mind filming that bit in the rain as it made it that bit more spooky. Other than them two issues our filming went really well and when filming the rest of the footage we was quite lucky with the weater, especially for this time of year.

Final Film Trailer...

Final Magazine Front Cover...